When considering my personal preferences, I find myself impossibly divided on Best Actress. I admire Amy Adams, Sandra Bullock, and Cate Blanchett’s performances almost equally. External factors knock Bullock down a peg (I’d rather pretend she won that other Oscar for “Gravity” than have her win a second), but I’d still be equally happy to see Adams or Blanchett win.

Best Director is an impossible choice for me also. The artistry of McQueen and Cuaron is hard to choose between, and both wins would be historic.

I think this is the first year in the last couple years where I personally wouldn’t choose anyone to tie. If I HAD to choose one, it would be a tie between Cate Blanchett and Sandra Bullock, but other than that nothing comes to mind.

Now this differs greatly from the last couple of years where I think a tie would have been deserved for:

If I could only choose one best actor I would go with Matthew McConaughy but I would be happy for Leonardo DiCaprio to win too so both actors would be winning for the best performances they have yet given in their careers.

I would not bet money that a tie will happen again for a long time, especially on the preferential voting system. There have only been six in the Oscars history of over 86 years. So, I am not counting on it.